In the middle of a public hearing on the regulation of cannabis for adult use, the representative to the Chamber of the Historical Pact, Susana Gómez, confessed that she is a regular recreational user of marijuana. In addition, she pointed out that it is a government priority to decriminalize the consumption of the plant.
The Board of Directors of the House of Representatives was decorated with cannabis plants to discuss the initiative led by Congressman Alejandro Ocampo. The project seeks to establish the regulatory framework for the seed, cultivation, transportation, storage, processing, transformation, export, packaging, advertising, sale, carrying, and consumption of cannabis flower and its derivatives for adult use.
“This is a priority for Petro. Already in meetings with the president, he has told us that legalizing cannabis or marijuana is an absolute and overwhelming priority of this government. We know that, you know it much better, cannabis can help save many lives, ”said representative Susana Boreal, as she is popularly known for her artistic career.
The representative of Antioquia pointed out that regulating the cultivation and consumption of marijuana would produce “around 1.6 million new jobs.” However, she focused her speech on the rights associated with the freedom of cannabis consumption over prohibition and lifestyle.
“All the benefits that this could bring at an economic level, at a health level, but of course I also claim the right to leisure, the right to enjoy. I am also a fairly regular marijuana user, in fact every day. I love it. I’m not afraid to say it, the cultural transformation we need in this country is for them to see that marijuana has absolutely nothing to do with how we are as a person,” Gomez said during the hearing.
“Not even saying: I smoke marijuana and I am a representative, which I do not agree with that either because marijuana is not the one that has me here, but marijuana is not the one that has a lot of people in their things either. The evil or goodness has to do with the person and not with this, “said the representative.
This is the third public hearing of the project and the first in Bogotá to listen to the concerns, comments and recommendations on the articles. The first meeting was held in Toribío, with producers and consumers; the second in Santa Marta. Three more will be made in Medellín, Villavicencio and it will close in Cali.
The project was filed in October 2022 and already has speakers for the first debate. The representatives summoned the support of all the parties to take steps towards the legalization of consumption, with a regulatory text that contemplates the possession and cultivation of cannabis for those over 18.
“Legislations are usually much more backward than the social realities that we are experiencing. It seems very cool to me to see that in Congress there is, for example, a large banner that says cannabis, because it is something supremely that breaks with all the ideology and with all the morality that we have in this country, which is precisely what criminalizes, stigmatizes everything that consumption,” said Boreal during the hearing.
Representative Gómez maintained that it is necessary to destigmatize marijuana in order to advance in the guarantee of freedom. “What do we want to do with our lives, with our bodies, how we want to enjoy, how can we claim the right to leisure, to enjoy, to party, and that we have all the guarantees to be able to do that, with all the access to prevention and those speech things that cost me a little more, “added the representative.
During this semester, the second round of the Legislative Act project that seeks to eliminate the prohibition of cannabis consumption from the Constitution must be completed, at the initiative of representative Juan Carlos Lozada, who for the first time managed to overcome four debates in Congress. with Infobae